"There's two sides to every pancake, no matter how thin".
I only have the same facts you do.

My county is not "Mayberry". We have 100's of Sheriff's deputies.
Do you think it was proper for one of the arresting party to be the same deputy that was involved in the earlier road rage episode? OK, I can see how he could help ID the guy, buy they must have had his photo from his DL. I think there is too much of a chance that this could turn into a "vendetta", not an arrest.

What would you do if people came to your home and instead of
knocking on the door, called you on the phone and represented themselves as police? (What do you do if they knocked on your door, for that matter?)
Should he have immediately called 911 and remain armed, inside his house and not open the door rather than confront them with an AK?

Is four shots from one deputy overkill/panic?
Even with a suspect with an AK, should he have fired? (We don't know if the gun was leveled at the deputy). Even with an AK, if it was pointed at a deputy, should it have been two shots and reassess? Should the deputies have retreated and waited for SWAT to arrive? Perhaps the sight of so many combat armed deputies would have made it clear these were really the police?

What do I think? Given what we know from the article, I think mistakes may have been made on both sides. Thank goodness no trick or treating kids or
anyone else was hurt.

The citizen was wrong for going outside with a rifle. He is lucky that these cops can't shoot.

The cop was out of line for his actions. First, there is no reason for the arrest. It was a traffic offense. If a ticket was to be issued, it should have been when the offense occurred. Hiding in the bushes cannot be SOP.

Allegedly, the deputy didn't ticket the driver at the scene because he
was off duty and with his family.

I think one issue was the deputy brought the "on duty" attitude with him when he was off duty. If someone is driving aggressively, the best thing is to NOT get into a confrontation and separate yourself with distance.

You are absolutely right, if this was just a traffic offense, wouldn't it have been better to just mail the ticket (if allowed by the department) or just let it go if they didn't?

I think you are all right that the citizen should never have left his house armed.
It escalated the situation, would have put himself in jeopardy if they were not real cops and almost got himself killed as is.

Even though we are a "Castle Doctrine" state, I remember one case
failing because the guy came out of his house and shot someone.
You have no duty to retreat but no sanction to advance, either.

Sounds to me like Arajuo needs to be suspended or fired. Where in that road rage incident does it warrant him coming back later on to arrest him? For being an *******? If that's the case a lot of jails would be filled with bad drivers. If the detective was so worried about his or anyone elses safety, why didn't he call it in when it first happened and have a marked car issue a warning or ticket. You've got some top notch LEOs in palm beach.

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